Big Fan Blu Ray Review (Shout Studios)

Big Fan is a 2009 dark comedy written and directed by Robert Siegel (Pam and Tommy, The Wrestler, Cruise, The Onion Movie, The Founder, and Turbo). It was produced and edited by Josh Trank (Fantastic Four, Capone, Chronicle, and The Kill Point). It was originally distributed by FilmRise in the United States. It grossed $234,540 during it’s limited theatrical run in the states and Canada. In the world of football, there are fans … and then there’s Paul Aufiero (played by: Patton Oswalt from The King of Queens, Young Adult, Ratatouille, Veep, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Magnolia, Blade: Trinity, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and Freaks of Nature). He’s still living with his mother (played by: Marcia Jean Kurtz from Requiem for a Dream) and he has a dead end job as working a parking lot attendant. He really only cares about his favorite team the New York Giants, defending them on talk radio against trash talker Philadelphia Phil (played by: Michael Rapaport from Cop Land, Deep Blue Sea, True Romance, Beautiful Girls, and Higher Learning), and enjoying all their games with his best friend Sal (played by: Kevin Corrigan from Goodfellas, True Romance, The Departed, and Pineapple Express). He spots his favorite New York Giant Quantrell Bishop (played by: Jonathan Hamm from AFL Game Day) in public but when he slips up and admits that he’s been following him all night, it turns into an awful situation. Bishop is suspended after beating up his biggest supporter Paul. This dedicated fan will find himself at odds with his family, the media, and the authorities when putting his allegiance to his team to the ultimate test!!!! Big Fan is a darker comedy about a football fanatic that takes his games a little too seriously. It turns into a strange dark drama at some point. The Paul character is pushed all the way to the edge. The script is very unpredictable, I really enjoyed that about this one. Patton Oswalt as Paul Aufiero is a ticking time bomb. He’s consistently getting bullied or treated badly. One of his biggest hopes turns into a complete nightmare when he finally meets his favorite player. This is definitely Patton Oswalt’s best role and greatest performance so far. Kevin Corrigan as Sal is a nice counterpart to Paul. He always tries to hype him up about his talk radio battles and he’s the guy that’s always supporting the New York Giants with him. Michael Rapaport is hilarious as Philadelphia Phil. He’s a die hard Eagles fan and he hates the Giants. He always testing Paul when he’s on the air. He’s the ultimate trash talker and he’s the reason that Paul really starts to snap. The supporting cast includes Marcia Jean Kurtz, Jonathan Hamm, Gino Cafarelli (Terrifier), Matt Servitto (The Sopranos), Polly Humphreys (Everyday People), and Scott Ferrall (Redbelt). You really don’t expect it to go where it ends but it’s been building up the entire time. It’s one of the weirder sports comedies of all time but I appreciate that it stands out from all the other movies in that same sub-genre. I won’t exactly say it’s fun all the time because it does get really dark and depressing but it’s very entertaining. I’ve seen it a few times over the years so it does have strong replay value to it. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Shout Studios! This 1080p (1.85:1) transfer is the exact same restoration as the 2017 FilmRise blu ray. I’ve owned that home video release for years so I compared both of them when I got this brand new re-releases from Shout. It is a BD-50 compared to the OG BD-25 so the picture quality is a little sharper here because of that. The additional great news about this reissue is that it’s actually pro pressed unlike the first BD-R disc from 2017. It’s still looks good in HD and it’s the best it’s looked so far. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the disc. It’s really not the explosive type of feature but the audio is very good for a mainly dialogue driven comedy. All of the dialogue is very clean, the fandom is elevated, and the music has a solid boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. There’s no extras on this home video release. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!